Las Vegas Sands Picks Alcorcon for ‘EuroVegas’ Casino in Spain

Las Vegas Sands Corp. President & Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven said the company has the $3.6 billion needed for its portion of the first phase of the project, adding it would take from 15 to 18 years to complete EuroVegas. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino
company controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, chose the
town of Alcorcon near Madrid as the site of Europe’s largest
resort, a project that may boost Spain’s ailing economy.

“For some time we have been working on an inspiring and
extraordinary project whose goal is to make Madrid the
international reference point for conventions, fairs,
exhibitions and leisure in Southern Europe,” Ignacio Gonzalez,
president of Madrid’s regional government, said today at a press
conference in the Spanish capital.

The Madrid area was chosen in September with the specific
location until now undetermined. Work on the first phase of the
project Alcorcon, which is 13 kilometers (8 miles) south-west of
the city’s center, will finish in 2017, said Gonzalez.

The project, dubbed “EuroVegas” in the press, could help
Spain cope with its second recession since 2008 and create jobs
at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to the
highest in Europe at about 26 percent. Spain accounted for $478
million of Western Europe’s $13.2 billion casino spending in
2010, the third biggest gambling market in Europe after France
and Germany, according to a report by accounting firm
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP.

If all three phases are completed, the mega-resort would
boost the region’s gross domestic product by 4.5 percent,
according to Promomadrid, a government-owned company that tries
to attract foreign investment to the Madrid area. It estimates
the development could create 164,000 jobs directly and a further
97,000 indirectly, equal to about half the number of unemployed
in the region.

Project Funding

Las Vegas Sands has the $3.6 billion needed for its portion
of the first phase of the project, Michael Leven, the company’s
president and chief operating officer, said at the news
conference, adding it would take from 15 to 18 years to complete
EuroVegas. The company will provide about 35 percent of
financing for the project, which will occupy a 750 hectare
(1,850 acre) site, said Gonzalez.

The complex would include as many as six casinos with more
than 1,000 gambling tables, 18,000 slot machines, nine theaters
and three golf courses. It would cost as much as $35 billion,
Adelson said in an April conference call with investors. Sands
will build four resorts with 3,000 rooms at EuroVegas, Leven
said.

Las Vegas-based Sands fell 1.4 percent to $53.55 yesterday
in New York. The shares have advanced 16 percent this year.